Business Daily (Nairobi)
James Shikwati
13 May 2008
column
So, why are the Kenyan roads bad?" an international journalist posed. The gentleman had travelled on our roads, those of Somalia, Rwanda, Congo and Uganda and he wanted to get some Africa bad roads 101 from me! Guess my answer? Our roads are bad because we don't own them.
Remember the usual big talk that the consumer is the King? If Africans were indeed the consumers of bad roads, don't you think they will exercise the might of a king to get everything fixed? For some reason, the African consumer believes the producer, the retail shop owner, the politician is the king.
How many times have you been in a public service vehicle that speeds, driver smokes and plays loud music and you simply kept your complaints deep in your heart?
For those who drive, some gaping pot-hole pops up on the highway, no signage to warn you of such an eventuality (because perhaps city council team wants to prove they are at work and have scraped the tarmac off the road!); you simply curse and drive away.
The media expose in great detail the names of those who have stolen from public coffers - translated to mean your taxes and you simply shrug it off as 'mali ya umma' (its not mine, belongs to everyone!)
But in the same breath... shouts of 'Mwizi! Mwizi' (Thief! Thief!) get you started and within no time you are kicking, throwing stones and boxing the thief because you believe it is not right for one to forcefully snatch your property.
You get a fly in your tea and you demand for another cup; if you collectively have a flight delay, you bury your complaint deep in the mind.
Kenyan roads are bad because we do not own them; they belong to the Government, the World Bank, European Union among other big moneyed institutions.
The Government on its part also mirrors the habits of its citizens, if say the EU assists in road construction, the road belongs to Europeans.
That explains in part why Government functionaries will literally pinch parts of road building material, and never factor maintenance in their plans and wait till the road is washed away- examples of roads waiting total wash-away include Eldama Ravine - Eldoret, Kericho - Kisumu, Kisumu - Kakamega - so as to justify another requisition for support from the EU! If it used to take passengers five hours to Kakamega; it takes over 10 hours and no one is complaining.
In comes the politician - we are lucky in Africa because politicians own all our problems! They will promise to fix roads, water, health, education, famine, school fees... while at the same time, they will be overheard grumbling that their constituents pester them for handouts.
In essence then, no problem, no challenge belongs to Africans; it always has to be someone else.
Does that tell us something about having too many NGOs as opposed to business outfits, too much talk on 'Africa needs a push' by aid money, and perhaps why we can never even agree on democratic ideals! We engage politicians only during campaign time; thereafter, politics belongs to them and not us!
We are awful customers in Africa; we always accept the worst service and simply hope for the best. We limit our expectations and ambitions and at the same time expect to launch the continent into the global economy.
A simple quiz: should Senator Barack Obama push ahead to be the first US African-American president? If you answered: 'He's made history already, he ought to be content with that!' Keep driving on bad roads and wait for outsiders to fix your problems.
Shikwati is director of Inter Region Economic Network
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